This is a rare early piece from the hands of Shōkosai IV whose training came to an abrupt end in 1922 with the relatively premature death of his father, Hayakawa Shōkosai III, an exceptionally harsh teacher who destroyed all of his son’s journeyman works. Shōkosai IV gradually mastered a full range of techniques, but his professional career was halted by the outbreak of war. After Japan’s defeat he moved to Kyoto and mostly created baskets for both the Chinese and the Japanese style of tea-drinking.